Letter to Jeff Jacobs after Twitter

[Fishy]

You motherf---ers are so limited in your thinking. You have to skate to where the puck will be.

Jetpacks.

We're not going to need roads where we're going.

Drop a 60,000 seat stadium in Storrs now and wait for the future to smile on us.

/HFD

 

[CL82]

If you think that moving the campus to on stadium makes people less busy then nope it's not. Straw man argument ignored.

Either you are going to commit to the idea that people that don't go to Rentschler because it's not on campus or you aren't. To this point you haven't so your stance exists on personal preference Straw man argument ignored.

 

[whaler11]

Yep just call everything a strawman, much easier than actually taking a position.

Moving on campus is so great - except for fewer people will go. And you won't even argue the opposite.

The numbers are clear the students are on site and can't be bothered to show.

 

[CL82]

You always have had a very bad problem with reading.

It's not so much a reading comprehension issue as it a flawed debating technique. Whaler just makes stuff up and then refutes it. I've never seen the point in doing that, but it not like he's the only one who does it.

 

[CL82]

Yep just call everything a strawman, much easier than actually taking a position.

Moving on campus is so great - except for fewer people will go. And you won't even argue the opposite.

Nah, you just make stuff up and attribute it to other people. It's a given if anyone responds to you. As an example, I've never said moving on campus is great, just that traffic management wouldn't prevent it.

 

[whaler11]

It's not so much a reading comprehension issue as it a flawed debating technique. Whaler just makes stuff up and then refutes it. I've never seen the point in doing that, but it not like he's the only one who does it.

I guess I should just say something is a great idea and then never actually explain why.

 

[CL82]

I guess I should just say something is a great idea and then never actually explain why.

Again you just made up the argument. You realize that you do it right?

 

[noeynox]

What exactly is he making up? Attendance has declined or the very least season ticket sales have. Building a stadium that is harder to get to isn't going to help that.

Look, I would love an on campus stadium, but I'm 38, If ever see it, I expect I'll be in my late fifties/maybe even my sixties. Aside from the issues whaler states, you have the town of mansfield who opposes it, you have huge road infrastucture issues to overcome, and you have the fact that the state spent nearly a hundred million building the Rent a dozen years ago.

Its not happening anytime soon.

 

[whaler11]

Again you just made up the argument. You realize that you do it right?

Ok well if you aren't inferring anything in your comments what difference does it make if the traffic can be solved.

So you just have an opinion that traffic management shouldn't
be an issue.

 

[whaler11]

What exactly is he making up? Attendance has declined or the very least season ticket sales have. Building a stadium that is harder to get to isn't going to help that.

Look, I would love an on campus stadium, but I'm 38, If ever see it, I expect I'll be in my late fifties/maybe even my sixties. Aside from the issues whaler states, you have the town of mansfield who opposes it, you have huge road infrastucture issues to overcome, and you have the fact that the state spent nearly a hundred million building the Rent a dozen years ago.

Its not happening anytime soon.

I'm making up his clear inferrence that he thinks an on campus stadium is a good thing because he won't actually make that comment.

 

[CL82]

What exactly is he making up? Attendance has declined or the very least season ticket sales have. Building a stadium that is harder to get to isn't going to help that.

Look, I would love an on campus stadium, but I'm 38, If ever see it, I expect I'll be in my late fifties/maybe even my sixties. Aside from the issues whaler states, you have the town of mansfield who opposes it, you have huge road infrastucture issues to overcome, and you have the fact that the state spent nearly a hundred million building the Rent a dozen years ago.

Its not happening anytime soon.

Fully agree noeynox. What he made up is that I said it's a good idea. I didn't, rather I just said that traffic management would not prevent it.

 

[CL82]

Ok well if you aren't inferring anything in your comments what difference does it make if the traffic can be solved. I think you mean to use implying. You are inferring.

So you just have an opinion that traffic management shouldn't
be an issue. There are other ways to manage it rather that a big infrastructure build out.

 

[whaler11]

Well you got me on the grammatical semantics. You are implying, I am inferring. That is correct.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

"...what the hell is a a Spaziano natural ground?"

Roughly, but directly, it translates to many will be happy to never, ever BCINGYA again. To minimize any hesitation or limited comprehension on your part, in this context never, ever strongly implies a very, very long time.

 

[Ha Who]

The stress of realignment is getting to you guys?

 

[CL82]

Well you got me on the grammatical semantics. You are implying, I am inferring. That is correct.

Actually, you are just inferring. I'm a pretty straight forward guy. If I want to make a point, I will. You don't need to guess.

 

[SubbaBub]

Can we please stop with other schools and what happens there.

At no time in the foreseeable future are UConn fans going to line up in traffic to go to football games.

They are not buying RVs and travelling around the country.

There is no pent up demand for endless tailgating outside of a few hundred people.

It drives some people crazy but UConn is a rare school who has a huge fanbase of non-alumni.

It takes generations to build what a Nebraska or Penn State have. It's 2014 and the world moves much more quickly than when Penn State and Nebraska fans built those traditions.

I don't know who people thinks are going to these games but people work so hard at getting in and out of them in a timely fashion because they have a ton of to do. Work, home, youth sports, boats, vacation properties, Giants/Pats, Yankees/Red Sox.

I had kids a bit late, but seemingly 90% of my peer group spends their entire weekend running between games and tournaments.

Nebraska has tens of thousands of people who plan their lives around the games. If you haven't built that by now - I don't see how any school anywhere can - there is just way too much competition for people's time.

It's a nice vision this concept of people wondering around campus checking out buildings or wondering around some co-op. It's not something 99% of people have time for or interest in.

Yes, we should by all means try to reinvent the wheel.

PSU as a campus/college town/football venue is exactly what UCONN desires to be and is also a former land grant cow college in the middle of nowhere. Why wouldn't we try to learn from them? They had their entire existence questioned and their FB program gutted and still had 95k people show up on game day.

What else are we talking about?

 

[CL82]

The stress of realignment is getting to you guys?

lol ...maybe. It's just pet peeve of mine when people create BS arguments and then attribute them to others so that they can shoot them down. It just craps up threads. But it's not like these posts are great reading so I'll let it go.

 

[SubbaBub]

OK, I can't resist commenting on this any more. I wonder how many on this board have actually been to Penn State football? The Rent is a far better place to watch a game. It is not the alumni that fill the place. PSU is Pennsylvania's team, not unlike Notre Dame in the midwest. Grads of many schools that don't have big time football adopt the PSU football. Also please stop talking about those who walk out of UCONN games early as an exception. I'd guess 25% leave Penn State games at half and another 25% at the fourth quarter except for the one or two real big games.
Next, I am so tired of hearing about a stadium in Storr's. Give it up and get behind
an effort to expand the Rent. It[s not going to move in our lifetime. Anyone who has really been to Storr's for a sold out BB game knows its much more than traffic management that would be needed to move 60,000 fans in and out of therein a day.
Instead of Malloy's last superjohn of a busway from Hartford to NB, why not run light rail from Storr's and Hartford to the Rent? Why not run a UCONN Express from NYC through Stamford to Hartford for football games? Then let's put a new BB/Hockey arena out at the Rent--much cheaper than in Hartford [besides by that time Hartford will have its own baseball team and will not be able to aford a new arena--almost forgot, Hartford cant' afford the baseball stadium either].
Let's think out of the box instead of running around bemoaning what isn't going to be changed.

Dude, it's exactly alumni that fill the place, generations of them. The State College area also provides a good number, but if you think unaffiliated people from Philly or Harrisburg are showing up in large numbers you're nuts.

What is needed, not only for FB but to connect Storrs to Hartford is a rail line. Stops in Storrs, Coventry, Manchester, Rent, Downtown.

 

[whaler11]

Yes, we should by all means try to reinvent the wheel.

PSU as a campus/college town/football venue is exactly what UCONN desires to be and is also a former land grant cow college in the middle of nowhere. Why wouldn't we try to learn from them? They had their entire existence questioned and their FB program gutted and still had 95k people show up on game day.

What else are we talking about?

If you try and emulate Penn State and Michigan by attempting to do what they did over the last hundred years you'll be wasting your time.

What built the Big 10 programs over the decades is not repeatable today.

The audience is no longer captive, people are more mobile, there is greater income disparity between classes - hell as the concussion science evolves the game might not even be recognizable by the next generation.

The numbers are clear around the country that the students are turning away from much larger programs - why would you want to copy what has already peaked and is on it's downside.

This isn't Field of Dreams. You can't just build a stadium in a field in the middle of nowhere and expect people to build their autums around it.

If you really feel the need to try and copy someone at least find someone on the upswing like Oregon or Baylor.

 

[Excalibur]

Well infrastructure improvements is one way to handle game day traffic, but other schools have decided to forgo that expensive option and merely use traffic management to move people out of the stadium. Rutgers and Michie Stadium are two examples that I have given in the past. I can't see why that could not be done in Storrs.

Michie Stadium is a really bad example. It takes forever to get out, and that's with only 30,000 people and a good portion hanging around to tour the campus after the game.

 

[Fishy]

Michie Stadium is a really bad example. It takes forever to get out, and that's with only 30,000 people and a good portion hanging around to tour the campus after the game.

It's a terrible example.

It takes 20 minutes to get off that campus after their Armed Forces Day 10k and there might only be 1,500 extra people there - they're socked in by a mountain range and a river.

It made a great fort back in the day because it was freaking hard to get to.

 

[The Funster]

Isn't game site attendance down all over? Here's how UConn beats that: holographic images of 60 to 100k fans with canned sound.

 

[Ha Who]

lol ...maybe. It's just pet peeve of mine when people create BS arguments and then attribute them to others so that they can shoot them down. It just craps up threads. But it's not like these posts are great reading so I'll let it go.

That's ok. Keep it going. The stress of life is getting to me today and I just wanted a laugh

 

[Husky25]

A large college campus is a destination in and of itself. The Rent is located on a former airstrip with no other reason for being there other than the game. My point was, friends, family and alumni would have an interest in being on campus after a game for hundreds of reasons, including visiting people they know attending the school, going to the bookstore, checking out the many new buildings, Ted's, etc. If you go to a Penn State game, you will find the fraternity houses packed with students and alumni. No hurry to leave campus. The Rent, people just want to get out of there fast.

So you're saying that 25,000 people will descend on the bookstore and tour the Chem building after every game?

I spent the better part of four years in Storrs and, not counting Christmas gifts for my parents during my freshman year, the amount of apparel I purchased at the Co-op amounted to exactly one polo shirt, a sweat shirt and two T-shirts. Whatever apparel I've purchased since '99 has been either on-line, Bobs' Store, or Bed, Bath & Beyond, where the price is dramatically reduced from the Co-op. I will give credence to this idea for one game day, probably every two years, but your idea of 25,000 alumni moseying about Crystal Lake 6-7 weekends in the fall, feeding the Canada geese is ludicrous. I'm 37 years old. Who the hell want's to see me in X-lot or at Teds?

People leave the parking lot at Rentschler for a number of reasons and none of them change with an on-campus stadium.
1) First and foremost is that security does not adhere to their own rules. They start kicking fans out before the 2 hour timeline.
2) It's not difficult to get out of the parking lot.
3) People don't necessarily plan for the after game tailgate.
4) Because of reason 2 and 3, it's easy to grab a table at Margarita's for a bite to eat and watch whatever big game is on at 3:30.
5) Finally, I for one would like to see my kid(s) before they go to bed and help out my wife after leaving them all home all day.

Putting a stadium on campus won't change that desire (or order) any and only serves to add another 1/2 hour to both commutes. If anything needs to change, it's student transportation. They need to add buses and give students more options for arrival and departure.